1. Field
The aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to vertical landing vehicle systems and in particular to situational awareness systems for vertical landing vehicles.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Pinnacle landings, such as an approach to elevated terrain, or landings in small landing zones, such as with vertical landing vehicles, are considered high workload, crew intensive tasks. During these landings, unintentional positioning of the vertical landing vehicle near terrain or other obstacles or the landings occurring in degraded visual environments (e.g., sand, dust, snow, fog, low or no light) may result in blade strikes, including tree strikes, pinnacle landing strikes, or strikes with other obstacles.
Generally, in an effort to prevent these blade strikes and/or pinnacle landing strikes, a crew member in the cabin partially exits the vertical landing vehicle to view underneath the vertical landing vehicle and provides verbal feedback regarding obstacles to the flight crew. In the event of degraded visual environments, the difficulty in accurately providing feedback regarding the position of the vertical landing vehicle increases.
The above problems are not addressed by conventional vertical landing vehicle systems.